


Generic Soulmarks Anonymous

by CatrinaSL



Series: A Simple Device [123]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Background Jane/Bruce - Freeform, Background Relationships, F/M, Flirting, Friends to Lovers, Idiots in Love, Resolved Sexual Tension, SHIP DARCY LEWIS WITH ALL THE THINGS, Sexual Content, Sexual Tension, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-15
Updated: 2018-04-15
Packaged: 2019-03-31 20:39:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13982922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatrinaSL/pseuds/CatrinaSL
Summary: Tony and Darcy have plenty in common. Including (but not limited to) their generic Soulmarks.





	Generic Soulmarks Anonymous

**Author's Note:**

> Soulmate AU Reminder: Everyone has a Soulmark, a tattoo of the first words their Soulmate will say to them. Showing someone else your Soulmark is like baring your soul to them, so most people only show their Soulmate or very trusted friends.

Nothing more eventful occurred at the meeting of Tony Stark and Darcy Lewis than a professional greeting, a professional handshake, and a frank (but still professional) confession of mutual attractedness. Jane Foster rolled her eyes, Bruce Banner shook his head, and the day continued as planned, with no interruptions for fate or fate-related revelations.

As time went on and they got to know each other a little better, Tony would be quick to admit that Darcy was "my favorite assistant I never slept with," while Darcy would confide, when cajoled, that Tony was her favorite scientist, "but don't tell Jane."

Another thing that happened as time went on was that Darcy started to hang out more in Tony's lab and less in the physics lab. She went there with coffee first in the morning. She checked in more often there during the day. And when Bruce and Jane went Upstate on a research trip, Darcy stayed at the Tower with Tony, babysitting him and his latest project.

"You don't think there's anything going on there, do you?" Jane asked Bruce one night as they stared up at the stars together.

"No more than there is going on between us," Bruce replied.

Jane smiled shyly. "About that..."

Needless to say, when they returned to the Tower holding hands, Darcy spent even  _ less _ time in the physics lab.

* * *

Inevitably, as Tony and Darcy formed a closer friendship, they talked about their Soulmarks.

"Oh, hell no, I am  _ not _ whipping mine out," Darcy laughed from atop a lab bench.

Tony gave her a lascivious glance. "It's somewhere that it would require  _ whipping out _ ?" he asked.

Darcy waved a hand, still laughing. "Nah, it'd just be some seriously gratuitous side-boob action. How about you?"

Tony thumbed at the arc reactor humming in his chest, then went back to tightening a bolt.

"Seriously?" Darcy gasped.

"Yeah," Tony replied, his voice strained with the effort of his work. He gave it a final wrench, then pulled back to catch his breath. "Kinda annoying I could never take my shirt off in college or anything, but I was like fifteen at MIT, so it wasn't like there was much of anything that the ladies would have liked to see."

"So it's like, ...gone now?" Darcy asked. "Your Soulmark?"

Tony scrunched one side of his face in semi-agreement; it was his 'I can get behind most of what you're saying but you have one wrong fact in there so I can't support you 100%' face. "You can still make out the beginning of the first word and the last letter of the last one. Not enough for a handwriting analyst, but plenty private enough for me to take my shirt off in the lab."

Darcy was torn between requesting a show and, "You've been to a handwriting analyst?"

He glanced at her, then back to his work as he answered. "Yeah, sure. Hasn't everybody with a couple thousand to blow?"

Darcy kicked her legs and waited out the awkwardness.

It took a while.

Tony broke the silence with, "I only went because my 'Mark was so generic it's stupid. Did you know the reason Cap wanted to join up so bad was because Aunt Peggy was his drill sergeant?"

"No way!" Darcy declared.

"Well, there was the whole Nazi thing too, I guess," Tony shrugged, using a rag to brush the metal shavings off his machine.

"Okay, yeah, but I meant your Soulmark. I have a totally boring one, too!"

He blinked at her. "Really?"

"Yeah, I've had at least four different people say my Words to me; it sucks every single time!"

"Huh," Tony said, taking in her cheery smile and livening up a little. "I guess we're an accidental Generic Soulmarks Anonymous, here."

"We totally are," Darcy agreed, grinning some more and hopping down from the lab bench to wink at him. "Maybe I'll show you mine sometime."

Tony ogled her shamelessly as she walked out of the room. "Looking forward to it," he called after her.

* * *

"So what are your plans for tonight, then?" Jane asked, while Darcy watched her get ready for she and Bruce's first anniversary dinner.

"I dunno," Darcy said, handing over the curling iron as Jane put her hairbrush down. "Probably go upstairs and hang out with Tony."

"Are you  _ sure _ there's nothing going on there?" Jane asked, giving her the side eye.

"Dude, we're just friends," Darcy said for the millionth time.

"What about the fact that you two team up every Game Night and kick all our butts at Pictionary? Every time. I could swear you're mind melded."

Darcy shrugged. "We hang out a lot, that's all."

"Can you explain the way  _ both _ of you look at each other when you think no one else is paying attention?" Jane asked.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Darcy lied. "Wait, both of us?"

Jane ignored her question and continued: "And how about the time I walked in and found him passed out practically on top of you on the couch?"

"That was platonic," Darcy claimed, with the hint of a blush coloring her cheeks.

Jane was savvy enough to do her hair and give Darcy a skeptical look at the same time.

"Okay, so he's gorgeous and I'm kind of in love with him, but it's different when you meet somebody like that  _ before _ you meet your Soulmate. You and Bruce... you  _ know _ your Soulmates are a space alien, and girl whose dad wants to lock you away in a government lab to do experiments on you. Respectively."

Jane regarded Darcy calmly, not buying it.

"No, seriously," Darcy said, toying with the cord of the hair dryer. "If... there was ... _ anything _ , and then we met our Soulmates, then what?"

"Polyamory is a thing, you know," Jane informed her, putting down the curling iron and grabbing her mascara.

Darcy was struck momentarily dumb, but recovered eventually and said, "You're adorable for wishing for a happy ending for everybody, but I don’t know if I want to risk it. And I don't think Tony would want to, either."

"How do  _ you _ know?"

"Because we're basically BFFs now since I can't walk into you and Bruce's lab without accidentally interrupting makeouts, seven times out of ten."

Jane rolled her eyes. "And?"

"And he still acts all, 'Tony Stark: Genius, Playboy, Philanthropist,' but he's a lot more serious than he used to be. Especially where the 'playboy' is concerned. After his whole kidnapping thing, I guess he decided he needed to find his Soulmate. He didn't want to die without meeting them. Or almost die. Again."

"He didn't, then?" Jane guessed. "Find his Soulmate, I mean?"

Darcy shook her head. "It got mostly covered up by his glowy life support, apparently. Plus his 'Mark is super common like mine. We're thinking of starting Generic Soulmarks Anonymous."

"Any other members aside from the two of you?"

Darcy shook her head. "Not yet."

Jane nodded knowingly.

" _ We're just friends _ ," Darcy repeated with a sigh.

"Keep telling yourself that."

* * *

"We're just friends, right?" Darcy asked Tony three hours later.

He dropped the wrench he'd been using. "Yes?" He twisted on the stool he was sitting on to catch a glimpse of her face and gauge her reaction. "Is that the right answer?"

Darcy sighed as she stepped up beside him and handed him the glass of scotch she'd gone downstairs to fetch. "I guess."

Tony didn't take his eyes off her as he sipped the alcohol. "Was there something else you wanted to hear?"

"I don't know," Darcy said, taking a swig of her own drink. "Jane was all, 'concerned parent mind games' tonight before she and Bruce left."

"About us being friends?"

Darcy nodded.

Tony set the glass aside, swiveled so he was facing her, and put a hand on her hip. "Well... She and Bruce found love where they could, and they're happy. Can you blame her for wanting that for you?"

"Nah," Darcy replied, trying not to get keyed up at the casual touch (and failing). "But that kind of thing is easier when you've already met your Soulmate and can't be with them for whatever reason. It's different with us."

Tony's eyebrows went up. "There's an us?"

"Not that there's—" Darcy began belatedly, pausing when her jaw dropped in response to Tony's other hand on her other hip.

"Do you want there to be an us?" he asked, fingers toying with the hem of her shirt.

"That's... I..." Darcy pressed her lips together to gather her thoughts. Tony "helped" by rubbing his thumb across her hip bone. "I told Jane things would be harder if she and Bruce hadn't met their Soulmates yet, that's all."

"You didn't answer my question, though," Tony observed, pulling Darcy closer and looking up at her with a mischievous smirk.

"Do I want there to be an us?"

Tony watched, looking completely at ease as Darcy licked her lips nervously.

"Well, if there was, and then we met our Soulmates..."

Tony continued gazing up at her, waiting patiently for her answer and giving no indication (aside from the movement of his thumb) of what he wanted to hear.

"Polyamory is totally a thing, right?"

Darcy watched as Tony's expression changed, the heat in his eyes giving away how much he wanted her. He fixed his gaze on her mouth. "So," he said, pulling her closer, to stand between his legs. "We're just friends, right?"

Biting her lip as one of Tony's hands slid up under her shirt to the small of her back and the other went around to cup her ass, Darcy shook her head.

He leaned up.

She leaned down.

Their lips met, and it just felt  _ right _ . 

Especially when Tony stood and deepened the kiss, moaning as Darcy slipped her tongue into his mouth. 

"Mmn," he hummed, moving his lips along the line of her jaw to her neck. "Couch downstairs?"

"If you think we can make it," Darcy agreed, stepping back to pull his shirt off.

He gave her a sexy grin she knew she'd never forget before he attacked the buttons on her blouse, the glow from the arc reactor lighting his way.

"This is  _ really _ bright," Darcy observed, putting her hand over it as Tony began to back her toward the stairs. "And warm."

He shrugged a shoulder and continued with the buttons and the moving-them-toward-a-comfortable-makeout-spot. Darcy helped with both.

As they reached the top of the stairs, Darcy squinted at Tony's chest. A few vowels stuck out on either side of the life-sustaining obstruction, and something more familiar...

"Hm," she mused, trying to puzzle out why she would be getting that vibe from Tony's Soulmark. It was hard, though, because Tony's teeth were on her collarbone, and Tony's hands were pushing her blouse off of her shoulders and onto the floor.

They made it to the bottom of the stairs—pausing to tangle their tongues together occasionally and ridding Tony of his pants and Darcy of her skirt along the way—before it hit her:  _ it was the L _ .

"I sign my name the same way," she said, as their legs bumped against the couch.

"What?" Tony seemed a little kiss-drunk.

"Your Soulmark," Darcy told him, flicking the letter on his right pectoral.

He smirked and ran his hands up her ribs to nudge at her bra. "Oh yeah," he remembered. "This probably means I finally get that gratuitous side-boob action, huh?"

Darcy laughed when Tony pulled her into his lap, then shoved him against the back of the couch and slowly took the bra off, strip tease-style. It took Tony a while to  _ get _ to her Soulmark, but Darcy definitely did not mind.

In fact, it wasn't until she leaned away, intent on finding a condom as soon as possible, that he stopped her and ran his fingers across the words on her chest.

"'Welcome. Great to have you here,'" he read. Then he looked closer. "That's..."

"Pardon me, Sir," JARVIS piped up. Darcy jumped and squeaked out an expletive. "I was loath to interrupt earlier, but I believe I have important information in the archives that could be helpful in your current situation."

Darcy wondered how the archives could help her find a condom as a screen blinked into existence above the bar in the lab, and began to play a surveillance video.

"Doctor Jane Foster, Tony Stark; Tony, Doctor Jane Foster," Bruce had introduced, as the scientists shook hands. Darcy watched herself stand in the background; she hadn't realized how obviously she'd been checking Tony out. 

_ He _ noticed too, and grinned at her, leaning forward to kiss her neck again.

"Sir, your attention," JARVIS reminded him helpfully. Darcy bit back a cry of pleasure as Tony bucked his hips against hers.

They both missed whatever Science Fanboy blather Tony had spewed all over Jane, but turned back to the screen in time to hear Jane say, "And this is my assistant, Darcy Lewis."

"Hi," Bruce had said, as he shook her hand.

"Don't mind her if she gets kind of chatty sometimes, she's really good with keeping my notes organized and making sure—"

"Thanks," Darcy had said, cutting her off as she'd turned to greet Tony.

"Welcome," he'd told her, surreptitiously eyeing her chest. "Great to have you here."

Darcy had nodded, and given him a look that let him know she was perfectly aware of his perusal of her goods. But she'd replied in a professional tone: "Looking forward to working with you."

Tony rested his forehead against Darcy's sternum as the screen disappeared into thin air, leaving the room silent to their realization.

"How many... people had said your Words to you before I did?" Darcy gasped, both in surprise and at Tony's breath brushing against her skin.

"Two," he replied. "A lab partner in college and—" He snorted. "Rhodey."

"A camp counselor said mine to me when I was at summer camp between eighth and ninth grade," she confided. "Also my first Poli-Sci professor when I showed up for class late freshman year, the lady who ran the diner in Puente Antiguo, and a tiny but very important man who was in charge of a conference Jane lectured at about a year and a half ago. Actually, it was like a month before we came here. So that explains the me not tackling you and demanding to know if you were my Soulmate."

Tony lifted his head and kissed her. "I was just thinking that we wasted a lot of time," he said. "But I don't know that we did. I mean, look at us. We're together. We have been for over a year."

Darcy nodded. "And we like each other enough to ditch our possible Soulmates for each other," she added.

"I thought we were going to try to talk ourselves into a poly relationship," Tony said, putting his arms around her and tugging her back against his chest.

"I think your Soulmate would be  _ way _ into that," Darcy told him.

"Two Darcys," Tony daydreamed, letting his head fall back onto the back of the couch.

"You'd better make sure you can handle  _ one _ Soulmate first," she hissed in his ear, grinning when he shuddered beneath her.

"We're Soulmates," Tony said, looking as though he couldn't quite believe it.

Darcy kissed him thoroughly, then realized, "I guess we have to cancel Generic Soulmarks Anonymous. All our members found their Soulmates. Got any ideas about what we can do instead?"

"Honey," Tony said with a lascivious grin, "I can think of plenty."

**Author's Note:**

> [Reblog on tumblr](http://catrinasl.tumblr.com/post/172968782328/generic-soulmarks-anonymous)
> 
> Tumblr: [catrinasl](http://catrinasl.tumblr.com)
> 
> Twitter: [@Catrina_SL](http://twitter.com/Catrina_SL)


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